23 JANUARY 2022 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS | UPSC CDS CAPF AFCAT NDA SSB

1. TIGER ESTIMATION

Tiger census will commence at Bandipur and at Nagarahole as part of the All-India Tiger and Mega Herbivore Estimation.

About:

This is part of the nation-wide enumeration that is held once in four years and is the fifth such exercise being taken up — the earlier ones being held in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018.
In the 2018 census, there were 125 tigers in Nagarahole whereas there were 72 tigers in the 2014 exercise which was a big jump.
Nagarahole Tiger Reserve is located in Kodagu district and Mysore district in Karnataka.
Bandipur National Park is located in Chamarajnagar district in It was established as a tiger reserve under Project Tiger in 1973. It is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve since 1986.

Important Info :

MSTRIPES

This year’s enumeration exercise entails the use of MSTRIPES (Monitoring System for Tigers Intensive Protection and Ecological Status) app and apart from the tiger counts, the exercise will also throw up data on mega herbivores, including elephants and gaurs.
The use of apps ensures that the data is not only digitised but is uploaded on a real-time basis and is robust.

Source : The Hindu

2. ABIDE WITH ME

A day after the eternal flame at Amar Jawan Jyoti was shifted to the National War Memorial, the government has dropped Abide With Me, the sombre highpoint of the conclusion of the Republic Day celebrations.

About:

Penned in the pre-modern world by Henry Francis Lyte, a Scottish Anglican minister and son of a naval captain, the hymn, which is known for its simplicity and sombre theme, is often sung to English composer William Henry Monk’s evocative tune Eventide, and has been a fixture in the Indian Beating Retreat ceremony since 1950.
It is always the last piece to be played by the brass bands before the troops recede up Raisina Hill to the tune of poet Allama Iqbal’s Saare jahan se achha.
Played at dusk, this is also the last piece before the retreat buglers bring down the Indian flag.
In 2020, reports had emerged about the hymn being dropped from the Beating Retreat Ceremony and being replaced by poet Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Vande Mataram. Following criticism, the hymn was played in 2020 and retained in 2021.

View of Gandhi

Abide With Me was one of Mahatma Gandhi’s personal favourites. The Father of the Nation first heard the piece played by Mysore Palace Band, and could not forget its tenderness and serenity.
At Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, the ashram bhajanavali — the first and probably the only cross-religion hymnal anywhere — with the bhajans ‘Vaishnav Jan Toh’ and the well-known Ram Dhun by Tulsidas, ‘Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram’ in it, Abide With Me, along with Lead Kindly Light, was put together under Gandhi’s watch.

Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon

Abide With Me has been replaced by Kavi Pradeep’s seminal piece Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon, which was written in the wake of the Sino-Indian War, and went on to become a tableau of Indian nationalism.
The song was first sung on January 27, 1963. Composed by C Ramachandra and sung by Lata Mangeshkar, it was first performed at Delhi’s National Stadium in a fundraiser organised by the film industry for Indian war widows.

Source : Indian Express

3. ASPIDIOTUS NERII

A joint forum of apple dealers from Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand chapters has written a letter to the Ministry of Agriculture to stop “the illegal sale of Iranian apples which is posing quarantine pest threat” to local apple producing regions of the country.

About:

According to apple dealers of these three regions, fresh fruit traders have started to import Iran’s fresh apples unlike last year and have started to dump them in the Indian market “at unexpected prices”.
This, according to dealers, in spite of Iranian apples posing “a greater threat to our country’s apples after quarantine pest Aspidiotus Nerii detected from kiwi consignments from Iran in December last year.”
According to the letter, the experts at the Sher-i-Kashmir Agriculture University and Science Technology (SKUAST), Srinagar have made it clear that if such pests enter the territory of any apple producing State it would be a catastrophe.

Source : The Hindu

4. LIVING ROOT BRIDGES OF MEGHALAYA

The Zoological Survey of India has underlined some green rules for the living root bridges of Meghalaya to get the UNESCO World Heritage Site tag. Meghalaya CM Conrad K. Sangma pitched for UNESCO recognition as the hill State marked its 50th year of creation.

About:

A living root bridge is like a suspension bridge formed by guiding the pliable roots of the rubber fig tree (Ficus elastica) across a stream or river and allowing the roots to grow and strengthen over time.
They are common in the southern part of the Northeast Indian state of Meghalaya.

Source : The Hindu

5. HOGENAKKAL PROJECT

The Karnataka government said it will oppose Tamil Nadu’s plan to take up the second phase of the Hogenakkal combined drinking water project.

About:

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had said a detailed project report would be prepared for the second phase of the Hogenakkal Integrated Drinking Water project at an estimated cost of ₹4,600 crore.
It is aimed at supplying water to Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts in Tamil Nadu.

Opposition by Karnataka

Karnataka government would legally oppose the proposed project by Tamil Nadu as it falls within the geographical jurisdictions of both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The Survey of India has not finalised the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border at Hogenakkal.
Any project that Tamil Nadu wants to implement in the Cauvery basin should be in line with the allocation of water made by the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal and Supreme Court orders.
Tamil Nadu has not placed the proposed project before the Tribunal or the Supreme Court.
As per Section 13 of the Cauvery Tribunal’s order, the Hogenakkal project should be taken up through the Central Water Commission.

Source : The Hindu

6. SARASWATI RIVER

In an attempt to revive the Saraswati river, the Haryana and Himachal Pradesh governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the construction of a dam in Himachal Pradesh on 77 acres, near the Adi Badri area of Haryana’s Yamuna Nagar district.

About:

The MoU was signed in the presence of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur and his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal for the rejuvenation of the Saraswati river at an estimated cost of ₹215.35 crore.
The dam would not only revive the Saraswati river but also help in water conservation in the region. The project would also be of use for Himachal Pradesh as 3.92 hectare metres water per annum would be earmarked for the State for its drinking water requirements, and 57.96 hectare metres for irrigation water demand in project-affected habitations.
With the construction of the dam, the Saraswati river would flow throughout the year with 20 cusecs water all the time.

Source : The Hindu

7. START-UPS

Start-ups raised a record $24.1 billion in 2021, a two-fold increase over pre-COVID-19 levels, according to a new study by NASSCOM and Zinnov.

About:

According to the study, ‘Indian Tech Start-up Ecosystem: Year of The Titans’, more that 2,250 start-ups were added in 2021, over 600 more than what was added in the previous year.
The study said: “Start-ups raised USD 24.1 billion in 2021, a two-fold increase over pre-COVID levels. In comparison to 2020, there was a 3X increase in the number of high value deals (deals > USD 100 million), demonstrating investor confidence with a pool of active angel investors of 2400+ and a readiness to take significant risks.”
It added that while the U.S. remains the leading source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in start-ups, worldwide involvement is also growing. About 50% of the deals had at least one India-domiciled investor.
The study added that the start-up ecosystem saw a 2X gain in cumulative valuation from 2020 to 2021, with an estimate of $320-$330 billion, demonstrating the sector’s development and recovery throughout the pandemic.
The industries that saw the most net new job creation were BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), ed-tech, retail and retail tech, food-tech, supply chain management, and logistics and mobility.
On the back of Internet commerce, freelancers, and service industries, indirect jobs have also recovered.

Source : The Hindu

8. INDIAN ENVIRONMENT SERVICE

The Supreme Court sought the government’s response on the creation of an independent Indian Environment Service in the “All India Service cadre”.

About:

A Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul issued notice on a plea by advocate Samar Vijay Singh for a specialised environment service in the lines of one recommended by the T.S.R. Subramanian Committee report in 2014.
The Committee, constituted by the Environment Ministry, in its report on November 18, 2014, had categorically recorded that the necessary institutional framework needs to be created, building on the existing systems, to meet future ecological demands, and ecological imbalance.

Source : The Hindu

9. DEEP OCEAN MISSION

Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral R. Hari Kumar called on Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh and discussed the modalities to deepen cooperation in "Deep Ocean Mission" which is to be the torchbearer of India's "Blue Economy".

About:

The Modi Government had approved the Deep Ocean Mission (DOM) in June, 2021 to be implemented by the Ministry of Earth Sciences at a total budget of Rs. 4077 Crore for 5 years.
DOM is a multi-ministerial, multi-disciplinary programme with emphasis on development of deep-sea technology that includes development of manned Submersible rated for 6000 metre water depth along with technologies for deep sea mining, exploration of deep-sea mineral resources and marine biodiversity, acquisition of a research vessel for ocean exploration, deep sea observations, and capacity building in Marine Biology.

Role of Indian Navy

The Indian Navy is a member of Deep Ocean Council and it will be involved in launching and recovery of Man submersible in deep water, which will be developed under the Deep Ocean Mission.
The Ministry of Earth Sciences and Indian Navy are to soon sign a MoU for knowledge sharing in the areas of design and development of underwater vehicles.

MATSYA

Dr Jitendra Singh informed that the preliminary design of the manned submersible MATSYA 6000 is completed and realisation of vehicle is started with various organization including ISRO, IITM and DRDO roped-in to support the development.
It is designed to carry 3 people to a depth of 6000 metres in the ocean with suit of scientific sensors and tools.

Samundrayaan

Dr Jitendra Singh launched India’s First Manned Ocean Mission Samundrayaan at Chennai in October, 2021 and thus joined the elite club of nations such as USA, Russia, Japan, France and China to have such underwater vehicles for carrying out subsea activities.
This niche technology shall facilitate Ministry of Earth Sciences, MoES in carrying out deep ocean exploration of the non-living resources such as polymetallic manganese nodules, gas hydrates, hydro-thermal sulphides and cobalt crusts, located at a depth between 1000 and 5500 metres.

Source : PIB

10. KOYLA DARPAN PORTAL

In order to share Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) related to the Coal Sector a portal "Koyla Darpan" has been launched by Dr. Anil Kumar Jain, Secretary, Ministry of Coal.

About:

As an initial step, the portal has the following KPIs - 1. Coal/Lignite Production, 2. Coal/Lignite Offtake, 3. Exploration Data, 4. Central Sector Schemes, 5. Status of Coal Stock in Thermal Power Plants, 6. Infrastructure Projects, 7. Allocation of Blocks (CMSP/MMDR), 8. Monitoring of Major Coal Mines(CIL), 9. Coal Price.
The portal is accessible through the website of Ministry of Coal (https://coal.gov.in) for maximum public outreach.

Source : PIB

23 JANUARY 2022 DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS | UPSC CDS CAPF AFCAT NDA SSB

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